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Quirky Kid Principal Child Psychologist Dr Kimberley O'Brien was invited to Bhutan to provide child and adolescent mental health training with psychiatrists and other professionals at the country's national referral hospital.
The 2022 visit followed approximately eight months of volunteer support delivered remotely through fortnightly video meetings with a small mental health team in Thimphu.
Dr O'Brien's current Quirky Kid professional profile records that she has been invited by the Bhutanese Government to train psychiatrists and mental health professionals in hospitals, schools and organisations supporting women and children.
Supporting child and adolescent mental health capacity
During the visit, Dr O'Brien worked with professionals connected with the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, including teams involved in child and adolescent mental health.
Published Bhutanese health literature identifies the hospital's Department of Psychiatry as the country's specialist psychiatric service and notes that it provides child and adolescent psychiatric care.
From remote support to in-person training
Before travelling to Bhutan, Dr O'Brien had been contributing remotely through regular professional discussions and resource recommendations.
The in-person visit expanded that work into practical workshops for mental health and allied health professionals, focused on child development, paediatric practice and approaches that could be adapted to local services.
The purpose was capacity building: sharing practical child-focused approaches while learning from a service system with different resources, structures and cultural contexts from Australia.
International learning with a practical purpose
For Quirky Kid, international clinical exchanges create opportunities to contribute professional knowledge while learning how other health systems and communities respond to children's mental health needs.
The 2022 visit also included an interview on Bhutanese National Television, extending the exchange beyond hospital and professional settings. Dr O'Brien's current Quirky Kid profile records the national television appearance as part of her international child mental health work.
The Bhutan work forms part of Dr O'Brien's broader international consultancy and training activity across child psychology, education and mental health.
The PEMA, Bhutan's national mental health and protection initiative, currently directs psychiatry appointments to the Department of Psychiatry at Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital.
